Re: “Economy, jobs trump marriage for many gay voters”

Mark Lee’s article misrepresents the Logo/Harris poll’s findings regarding the likely LGBT vote for president next fall. The poll finds that 65 percent of LGBT likely voters support President Obama, 21 percent support Mitt Romney, 5 percent support minor party candidates and that 9 percent are undecided. Lee takes this to indicate a drop in LGBT support for Obama by comparing these data to the 2008 exit polls. The exit polls simply asked whether respondents voted for Obama or McCain. To make a proper comparison, one would have to compute Obama and Romney’s vote as a function of the two-party vote. Recalculating as a two-party vote, this would give Obama 76 percent and Romney 24 percent, a result that is roughly equal to the 2008 figures. Fears of a sharp drop in LGBT support for President Obama are not supported by the Logo/Harris data. Quite the opposite. We find continuity, not change. — Kenneth Sherrill, professor emeritus, political science, Hunter College, CUNY